GOP uses New Jersey voting glitch in push to pass SAVE Act before Congress' recess

The Trump administration is pointing to the case of incorrectly registered non-citizen voters in New Jersey in its final push to get the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, or the SAVE America Act, as Republicans refer to it, passed before the Senate's summer recess.

About 6,600 people in New Jersey who said they were not U.S. citizens were incorrectly registered to vote because a software error allowed them to between June 2023 and June 2024, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said.

Sherrill said the error occurred when individuals applying for drivers' licenses or identification cards were asked if they wanted to register to vote. Even though they indicated they were noncitizens, the system made them eligible to register, she said.

Fewer than 400 people who were erroneously registered were found to have actually voted and were not tied to any political party and weren't all cast in the same election, Sherrill said, and the state has "no evidence at this time that any elections were swayed."

Sherrill was sworn into office in January 2025.

The Trump administration said the New Jersey case is "another reason" for Congress to pass the legislation. President Donald Trump again promoted the act on his social media platform on Wednesday and alleged without evidence that the number of non-citizens registered to vote in New Jersey was much higher.

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"Republicans, get smart and straighten out our Crooked Elections!" Trump wrote.

Millions of ballots have been cast in New Jersey elections since the erroneous registrations were made and there is no indication that any outcome would have been different.

Trump has long suggested, without evidence, that elections were rigged. His own voter fraud commission, established in his first term, was disbanded in 2018. Trump's own attorney general in his first term, Bill Barr, said after the 2020 election that the Justice Department uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Audits of voter rolls in several states has shown that noncitizen voting is extraordinarily rare.

During his speech on his administration's accomplishments under his "One Big, Beautiful Bill" in Georgia on Wednesday, Trump used New Jersey as reason to pass the SAVE Act.

"They voted against voter ID," Trump said, referring to congressional Democrats. "Can you believe that? Well, you saw what happened."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated Trump's messaging at a news briefing Thursday, pressing the Senate to pass the bill by the August recess.

Leavitt said she suspects there are more non-citizens on voter rolls across the country, though experts and state officials have noted that the system the administration wants states to use to purge their rolls is prone to errors.

"[Sherill] says it's 6,600; we suspect it's a heck of a lot more, not just in New Jersey, but in states across the country. The president is hellbent on getting to the bottom of this," Leavitt said.

Trump has argued on his social media, without evidence, that the number of noncitizen voters in New Jersey was much higher, appearing to reference letters that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent last week that alleged New Jersey could have had "as many as 35,152 non-citizens registered to vote." But Mullin has not explained how he arrived at these numbers.

Vice President JD Vance tagged New Jersey Democratic Sens. Corey Booker and Andy Kim in a post on X on Tuesday, pushing them to vote to pass the act.

"If only there were a way to stop this type of "software error" that allowed non-citizens to vote in our elections," Vance wrote.

The SAVE America Act would require states to obtain in-person "documentary" proof of U.S. citizenship before registering a person to vote and a photo ID at the time of voting, although noncitizens are already prohibited from voting in federal and state elections, though some cities allow noncitizens to vote on some local elections. It would also require states to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls.

Voting rights groups and a number of congressional Democrats have called it a "voter suppression bill," arguing that it could disenfranchise voters who are citizens but do not have the required documents. They have also raised concerns over married women whose current last names do not match their birth certificates, which might be used as a qualifying document to vote.

"We will fight like hell to make sure Trump can't silence voters," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor last week. "Donald, when it comes to the SAVE Act, the courts have rejected it, Congress has rejected it, even members of your own party have rejected it. The SAVE Act isn't going anywhere."

The Department of Justice said Tuesday that it is investigating the New Jersey case and requested Sherill share personal information on the registered non-citizens the state identified within five business days, including "their full names, dates of birth, nationalities, residential addresses, and registration dates and locations" and additional details on the 400 people who voted.

A spokesperson for Sherrill framed the DOJ's request as the White House "weaponizing the Justice Department."

"The Trump administration has a long history of weaponizing the Justice Department for political purposes and attempting to overturn election results. Governor Sherrill has been clear that she will use all the legal tools available to her to protect New Jerseyans' personal information," Sherrill's spokesperson Sean Higgins wrote in a statement to ABC News.

Higgins did not say if the state plans to respond formally to the DOJ.

ABC News' Oren Oppenheim, Nicholas Kerr and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.